ITALY AND TURKEY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 89, 5 October 1911, Page 3

ITALY AND TURKEY

[ THE DESCENT OF ITALY ON THE I COAST OF AFRICA. A LITTLE-KNOWN COUNTRY. WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED. The descent of Italy on the barren coast of Africa immediately under the heel of the Italian peninsula is suddenlike a bolt from the blue—but was almost certain to happen sooner or later. For many years now Italy has been preparing for the move. In the scanty literature dealing with the almost unknown country of Tripoli, or Tripolitana, as the whole province is called, there are many references to impending occupation by Italy. In the 'eighties of the last century Elisee Reelus, in his Geographic Universelle, describing Barea, the eastern portion of the villayet or Tripolitana, says: "Of late years Barea has been visited by a great many travellers, astronomers, geographers and naturalists, nearly all of whom were sent by the Italy Society of Commercial Exploration in Africa. The chief object of these continuous visits is to prepare the way for the political occupation of the country by the Kingdom of Italy. ... It may well happen that in the near future the partition of Africa, already begun by the European Powers, may cause both Cyrene and Tripolitana to be transferred from their present Ottoman rulers, pro- j babh- to the Italians."

In another place ho quotes O. Rohlfs, the Herman traveller, who has contributed most in our knowledge of Tripoli: "To the future master of Tripoli belongs the Soudan." Roldfs urged Italy to take possession of Tripolitana, pointing out the feasibility of constructing a railway from Tripoli or some other part of the country on the Mediterranean seaboard to Lake Chad. '"Not only is this the shortest route," comments Elisee Rechus. "for the line destined one day to connect the basin of the Mediterranean with that of the great inland lake, but it also seems to be the most convenient for the continental trunk line, terminating at the head of the Gulf of Guinea, between the Niger and Congo basins. Hence there can be no doubt that the railway penetrating from Tripolitana southwards must, sooner or later become one of the great commercial highways of the world." A LONG PREPARATION- AND A SUDDEN COUP.

This, then, is probably the secret of Italy's long preparation ami sudden coup to gain possession of Tripoli—"To the future master of Tripoli belongs the Soudan." Tripoli is already the focus of the three great caravan routes from the south. During the year six or eight caravans, each comprising,' KMlfl to !1000 camels, and escorted by hundreds of armed Arabs, leave Tripoli for the interior, carrying cotton goods, Venetian beads. Bohemian glass, silk, paper, tea and sugar. They return with ostrich feathers, goat skins, ivory, gold dust and slaves. The opening up of the Soudan from the Gulf of Guinea on the one side and on the other from the Upper Nile has in recent years struck a severe blow at this trade, but no doubt it might revive under proper encouragement. The fact that the distance from Lake Chad to tlie Mediterranean is three or four hundred miles shorter by way of Tripoli than through Tunis and Algeria, is a great advantage in favor of the former. Should a railway be constructed across the desert from'Tripolilana to the Soudan it due.- nut appear thai there are any serious engineering diliiciiil ies in the way of high ranges, such as obstruct access by way of Algeria or Morocco.

no r,Enoi!AriiK\M, i .<ity. There is no geographical unity about Tripolitana. It lias political unity as a vilayet of tin' Turkish Empire, but among tlic tribes of the interior there is a sort of semi-independence. The area is about •l-WMlim square miles, ami the population is estimated at rather more than one million. Two thousand years ago. after occupation by the Phoenicians and Creeks during centuries before, the country flourished. ft was one of the sources of wheat-supply to Home, and the Romans stamped their invariable impress on the country by hundreds of monuments, aqueducts, storage reservoirs and towns, the ruins of which, amid the desert to-day, are a sad commentary on more than a thousand years of Turkish rule. Since the Turkish occupation, the whole country has stagnated. Sand has crept in from the shore and ruined many fertile places, and the desert has swallowed up oases in the interior. The whole climate is said to have become drier in the last few centuries. Although more than half the size of France. Tripolitana itself has not n single perennial stream, ft consists of a narrow coastal strip, hacked by desert plateaus sown with fairly numerous oases, where artesian water comes (o the surface. The largest of these is in Fczzau. the most southern portion of the vilayet. There are other oases at Ohadames, on the Tunisian border, and at Jofia, just below the gulf of Sidia (Syrtus .Major), where the Mediterranean makes its deepest entry itno the North Coast of A'frica. liarca (the ancient Cyrenaica), between the Ciulf of Sidria and the frontier of Egypt, the most eastern portion of the vilayet, is also the most fertile. It has a fair rainfall and a fertile soil. with a climate like that of Southern Italy, In ancient times this was one of the richest lands in North Africa, and here the fabulous Hardens of the llesperides were placed, on the authority of the historians of those days. Ilarca is to-day the most nourishing part of the Turkish vilayet, and is practically the only region of any activity. ANOTHER. EVEN IiETTKi:, ALCEKIA.

Xmv. in all this great coiutlrv. Imtiv a desert, but (hut blooming with cultivation. Jtuly sees ;i chance (if making another and even Letter Algeria. TravelI crs lire agreed on ihe possibilities of large portions of Tripolitana under irrigation by artesian wells. '-The northern slopes of .lehel (Human,'' says one, might easily ad'ord sustenance for many hundred thousand souls." The climate is exceedingly li„(, in the day, a temperature as high as IST degrees in the sun bavin;; l>een registered in the desert, but il, is cool at night, and snow is sometimes seen on the uplands. There appears to be an abundance of underground waler. which only needs to be tapped to fertilise the desert.

"The great decrease in her leading exports,'' wrotcs C \V. Furlong, an American Iravcller. in 1!>.1>7, "rcilccts unfavorably on the general commercial prosperity of Tripoli, but more salienllv empha- j sises Ihe need of developing hj, r agricultural resource-. Turkey seems not onlv indill'ereiit. but averse.'lo improveiucnl'-J of any kind. ii|i]iarently mil ui.-hing In encourage eilher native or foreign ii'tcrests, thereby nllracting Mt 1 en' ion lo Ih" country. Yet. with a p ah": Turkey guards this province perhaps. She may continue to squeeze from (lu-> Hat lciithern money-pouches of the Arab more miserable verghi and I ithes—perhaps that she may main-tain a dour'between t'oiisiaiilinoplc and the hinterland of Tripoli, through which to secretly replenish her supply of slaves. 'There is every reason lo believe it will be a Christian European Power which will

open for the Arab that sesame which | arouse him from his inertia and usher I i him into lipids where he will lake new' • lii-ari a.nl courage; and Tripoli will be ( • ( reclaimed from the desert." "It would 'be sirauge," says another writer, "if the , throbbing life of Western civilisation i failed to make itself ultimately felt in Ibis neighboring region of the Dark Continent.'' A FOOTHOLD ALREADY;. Italy htid already a foothold in Tripoli, through her own citizen traders and the numerous kindred Maltese. She controls a large portion of the trade, sharing it with Kngland for the most part. Her pre-emptive rights appear to have been recognised long ago, and there seems to be no doubt that, if she once occupied Tripoli, it will mean a new era for that ancient, but now decayed, land.